


Home is where the computer is

by 1anioh



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Depression, Multi, PTSD, Slow Updates, The Stark clan adopts captain america, because fight me, fixing MCU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-12-20 19:13:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11927424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1anioh/pseuds/1anioh
Summary: Steve has depression, Tony has a broken heart, JARVIS needs to keep his cameras to himself, and Pepper needs a drink. This story is dragging time back to just after the first Avengers movie, because fuck AoU.





	1. Steve's before

**Author's Note:**

> I just want all the children to be happy. This will probably be updated slowly because it's me. Currently the plan is to keep the story to fluff, but again, it's me so there might be some explicit chapters later.

An arm emerged from a pile of quilts lumped in the corner of the dark bedroom and groped about until finding its prize, a buzzing phone, that was being rather persistent on waking him. The arm pulled the phone back into its dark cocoon, where the person attached to the arm clicked it on with an annoyed huff.

The phones dim screen still hurt Steve’s eyes. Even on the lowest setting his Stark phone 3’s screen was still bright enough to light up the inside of his little blanket nest that he’d been sleeping in.

The ‘two new emails!’ blinked at him in cheery blue letters and he clicked on the first one, bringing up a screen that listed this week’s coupons for the grocery store a couple blocks away from his apartment. The email had a lot of smilies and informed him the apple butter was going fast so to hurry up and ‘buy it soon.’

His stomach growled and he sighed, well he did need to go shopping. The second email was from some lady named Jenny and told him that there was a bunch of single ladies looking to party in his neighborhood. Five weeks of being awake in this new century and Steve Rogers still wasn’t used to the fact that everyone was just so _open_ about being available for sex.

Steve kicked off his blanket nest and pulled himself sluggishly to his feet. He stuffed the phone into the pocket of his sweatpants and scratched at his stomach as he padded from the lone bedroom to the kitchen/living room combo. The realtor had gushed about the open floor plan of the place when he’d rented it, but even still the room was too small for a full sized couch.  

Steve didn’t care all that much. There wasn’t anything in the living room except for the bag of clothes given to him by shield during his brief stay there anyways.

Three weeks ago the sky had been ripped open, spewing out aliens because the thing he’d died for 70 years prior had resurfaced in the world and people thought making weapons with it was a good idea. Again.

The light clicked on in fridge as he pulled the door open, staring at the mishmash of leftover fast food boxes. Breakfast was to be cold pizza and, he sniffed a box, slightly sour egg drop soup.

Great thing about being a highly advanced super soldier with healing capabilities. Didn’t matter how old his leftover chinese food was - it wasn’t going to kill him.

Steve chugged the soup, ignoring the way it slimed down the back of his throat. Two weeks ago he’d came back New York because the fear of the city disappearing while he was gone had kept him on edge and sharp tongue the entire time he'd been trying to absorb the countryside. He also might have broke a train station with his fist. An hour into being back into the city and parked in an empty lot a sleek black car had pulled up and a dame in heels that made her nearly as tall as him stepped out.

Steve dropped the empty soup cup into the sink on his way towards the bathroom. The family size pizza box clutched safely in one hand as he knocked open the door. It took a bit of maneuvering in the dark windowless room but he managed to get the water (the rattle and spit of the pipes made the hairs on the back of neck stand up like nothing else in this century had) on and filling the tub, his pants off, and two slices of pizza stacked onto each other for better eating ability.

Few bites and the slices were gone. He took the moment to step into the water and slide down. The tub was too small for him to stretch out comfortably, but it was deep, and the water got scalding hot. Steve pulled out another slice of everything pizza and chewed quietly, watching the water rise around him and ignoring the olive floating a few inches away from his chest.

The dame introduced herself as Ms. Pepper Potts, Stark CEO and friend of Tony. She was a pale, soft looking thing, but Steve got the feeling she had the strength to break a thousand men if they got in her way. She’d given Steve the phone, told him that it was a way for him to get into contact with her or Stark if needed.

He’d thanked her politely, his mother had raised him right after all, and went back to deciding if sleeping in the wreckage of one of the many destroyed buildings was considered trespassing.

Ms. Potts seemed to have known what he was thinking because a few hours later he was being asked if he liked dining rooms or if open floor was more his style. Steve had nodded along, quietly accepting everything the bubbly realtor queried and from the sad knowing look on Ms. Potts face that had probably not been the correct way to go about convincing her he was okay at surviving on his own.

Steve used his foot to shut off the water tap while pulling out another slice of pizza. He’d called the number on his phone labeled ‘Tony Stark’ a few days after signing a contract where he’d promised to pay money to … someone. He’d skimmed over some of the sentences while he wrote where Ms. Potts pointed. Something he probably shouldn’t have done in hindsight.

Stark hadn’t answered. Instead a pleasant British man had informed him that Mr. Stark was in a meeting and unavailable. Steve had left a rambling two minute message where he was pretty sure he’d apologized three times and said something about Ms. Potts being a swell dame.

Steve frowned at the empty pizza box before turning his attention to the lone sad olive floating in the bathwater. He picked it up and squished it, before sighing and popping the warm mush into his mouth. He wiped his hand off on the bath mat on the floor next to him and leaned back to stare at the blackness where the ceiling lurked. He supposed it said something about him that he spent his time submerged in the dark and water.

The thread of energy that had propelled him out of his nest earlier flickered and faded away, leaving him with numbing exhaustion. Steve closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, a single idle thought of needing crackers for the apple butter crossing his mind before sinking down into nothingness.

About a week ago it had occurred to Steve that being angry was exhausting. Trying to understand this time was maddening and left him feeling bitter, with a need to sleep another 70 years.

He’d pushed it all away from himself.

If he kept his body running on half the needed food and 20 hours of sleep a day the panic stayed away. The anger melted away, and that grief at the death of everything he’d known and loved just… didn’t appear.

And this flat nothing gave him a sick sense of peace he hadn’t felt since his childhood.


	2. Enter Tony

“You did what now?” Tony Stark stared incredulously at a glowing screen over a pile of metal currently being reshaped into a car.

“Tony I told you the day I did it, I even asked you to come with.” Pepper Potts leaned back in her chair, raising an eyebrow at Tony as he sputtered. The fact that she could practically see the wheels spinning in his mind would have been cute if it hadn’t meant that he’d clearly not been listening to her. Again.

Tony tossed his wrench on to the table and scowled. “Ah yes, visiting Captain Pissy Pants must have been a real treat and I’m sorry I missed it, but Pep you can’t just go giving him stuff.”

“Stuff that you made specifically for him?”

Tony’s scowl deepened. “It wasn’t for him, specifically.” He muttered.

Pepper sighed, her shoulders heaving daintily. “Tony you made a brand new OS in three days for easy to use interfacing and learning. You also remade the casing for said phone four times to make sure it was bullet proof and the screen super strength proof.” At her look Tony closed his mouth, swallowing his arguments. “Also I got the impression that he was … not doing the best when I saw him. Which is why I’m asking you to at least call him.”

“I’m sure he’s fine, not like Shield would let their wonder captain be unsupervised.” Tony dropped onto a stool, spinning around in irritation.

“Tony _  I’m _  the one who helped him find an apartment. Shield was going to let him sleep in the street.” Steve hadn’t said that of course, but he hadn’t  _ not _  said it and from the way Tony had jerked around she had no intention of clarifying. She knew Tony, his need to take care of people was as strong as his armor that he flew around in. Despite his insistence that his heart wasn’t there. “Please Tony, one phone call is all I’m asking.”

Tony was silent for a moment before giving a curt nod. “Alright Ms. Potts. Is that all?”

“That’s all Mr. Stark.” Tony nodded once more before waving a hand, signalling for Jarvis to cut the connection. Pepper blew out a breath and sank backwards into her chair. She knew she should have set up a couple of alerts to remind Tony to get a hold of Steve earlier but the president of the south Asian branch had called in a panic about an item that had been put together backwards and improperly shipped out as a result. A couple hours later she’d been on a plane to said office in south Asia and knee deep in emails to try to fix the problem before the world ended. Or at least the stocks dropped.

Now that the problem was over and she’d had a moment to relax she’d sent a note to Jarvis asking for ‘The news’; a code for updates on him and Tony (and Rhodey when it was available).

Tony was on a work bender, like normal, Malibu Jarvis was in need of a software clean and upgrade, and Captain Rogers phone hadn’t moved from its position within his apartment in the last 47 hours how was her trip going?

Pepper rubbed her forehead, hoping that she could will the stress headache away before it even started. Jarvis followed where Tony went, and because Tony insisted that Steve did not like him Jarvis had determined not to like Steve.

Honestly she’d been intent on not liking Captain Rogers as well but he’d been so polite when they’d met - and so hollow. He’d looked every bit a tired young boy running on fumes when she’d met him in that parking lot. The way he simply accepted everything she’d said and done… well he hadn’t been anything like what Tony had been describing.

And Pepper wasn’t a fool, she knew with the way the Shield handled Tony and with the way Steve’s eyes were glazed over that he was obviously not being taken care of properly.

Her Starkpad beeped and she clicked open the screen to see a picture of Tony sitting on that awful green couch in his lab shoveling some form of sugary cereal into his mouth. She smiled fondly and sent Jarvis a thank you in reply. He took it upon himself to send updates on Tony taking care of himself when he knew she wasn’t around to prod Tony into doing it.

The airplane loud speaker clicked on and informed her that they would be arriving in an hour. Pepper closed the Starkpad and tossed it onto the seat next to her. She could only do so much in life. If Tony was going to insist on not wanting to be involved with Rogers she wouldn’t force him.

Maybe she could get Jarvis to keep an electronic eye on Steve for little while.

And maybe she would have Happy drive by Steve’s apartment. Just to check.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter, but I wanted to attempt keeping up a steady flow of posting. 
> 
> Comments result in chapters showing up more often. <3


	3. Jarvis starts

“You have 34 voicemails, 279 emails, and 17 packages that Tower mail has sorted and put into the crate elevator for you Sir.” Jarvis rattled off, ignoring the betrayed pout Tony was currently giving the array of holo screens floating in front of him.

It was hard to translate human emotions into computer and vice a versa but having existed and evolved for the last 20 years as both a son and best friend, Jarvis liked to think that he had a pretty good handle on communicating his displeasure of fruit puff cereal as a meal while reminding Tony that the outside world existed and needed his attention.  

Tony responded with his “Stop being so judgy J it tastes good” hand wave and rolled a shoulder.

“Standard sort for the emails. Decline all invitations, toss everything media, forward R&D stuff to test server 7, and fuck off notes to anyone asking for money.” He paused long enough to chug the pink milk from the bottom of his bowl. Jarvis declined to sigh audibly but his pointed silence gave the same effect regardless. “And repeat for the voicemail's.”

He handed of his bowl to DUM-E who clicked a cheerful ‘order received’ before whirring away and narrowly avoiding knocking over a half dozen things on his way to the kitchenette.  

“That leaves three voicemail's and 22 emails. I’ve taken the liberty of sorting Ms. Potts reminder emails onto your calendar Sir.” A new green holo screen popped up, displaying a list of the emails still needing to be read.

“Who are the voicemail's from?” Tony eyed the email list with suspicion. Jarvis knew it was for the emails themselves and not his color choice of screen. He’d been reading through various journals and doctor recommendations that suggested humans subconsciously needed different colors to stimulate healthy growth both mentally and physically.

It hadn’t taken long for Jarvis to create and implement various changes around his different locations. New colors for his holo screens, gold lights for the kitchens, soft blues for the bedrooms, and purples for the shower areas.  His priority was Tony after all, and some code edits weren’t difficult to manage.

“One message is from Captain Rogers and two from shield; both of the shield messages involve similar queries for you to come in for discussions about rebuilding the helicarriers computers after another mysterious equipment failure. Again.”

Tony chuckled. “Yeah delete those, they deserve everything that comes with ordering Hammer tech. The Rogers one…” He groaned and flopped backwards against the couch, chewing on his bottom lip and looking in general like he’d rather lick batteries.

“I can delete that one as well if you’d like Sir.” He liked to think that he’d managed a soft neutral tone, but from the huff of laughter from Tony he hadn’t been successful.

“No no, you heard Pep. Gotta at least make an effort. For her. Play it.”

“... Tony? Uh I mean Mr. Stark?” Rogers hesitant and quiet voice filled the room. “I’m, I’m back. Here, in.. in uh New York? And well I… I wanted to apologize. For what I said, back before the fight. Wasn’t right of me to be such a crumb to ya’, didn’a deserve tha’. Ya got every right to consider me a’ fat-head but I...” He coughed, and the sounds of hollow thudding could be heard in the background.

“Sorry, never mind. I met your Ms. Potts. She’s a darb dame Stark. And thank you for the phone. I appreciate it. Don’t got many people to call but those bookmarks for wiki and google you put on the internet are really helpful, so uh thanks for that too. I… I’m not sure where I’m staying, but I think Ms. Potts does so if you wanted to get together - not, not that you have too or anything. I’m sure I’m not really high on the list and all but…” His voice trailed off, and after a beat of silence he continued. “Sorry, never mind. I… no uh, never mind. I’m sorry about the fight and thank you for the phone and I should probably go because I’m sure you're busy. Okay, bye Tony.”

The last part was nearly whispered into the phone, and from the stunned wide-eyed look on Tony’s face he hadn’t been at all prepared for the message. Jarvis scanned his vitals, noting the surprised flush on the man's face and the erratic heartbeat. If the silence continued for longer than two minutes Jarvis would initiate protocol 43.77a, and possibly sub 43.78c but that was just a personal preference.

Tony inhaled sharply, jerking himself out of his daze. “Wow, uh wow okay. J save that. And order a, fuck I don’t. What says ‘welcome back, I’m sorry I was a dick too but I’m still not entirely sure I don’t hate you?’ 

Ah, Jarvis thought. Not a 43 situation. A 1.91b moment. “Edible arrangements has your normal order of non-chocolate sorry mini basket Sir. Perhaps that would fit your needs?”

Tony laughed, startled and pleased. “Yeah, yeah that would probably be best. Better order two though. And figure out his address would you? I can’t believe he doesn’t know where he lives. Actually, I can believe it. Did you hear what he called Pepper? Darb. Jesus haven’t heard that ever.” His grin turned a bit manic. “And that accent...” He trailed off, staring into space.

“Sir?”

“Yes J?”

“Shall I add ‘Brooklyn accent’ to the list of sexual turn ons?”

The thrill and pleasure that came with making Tony sputter and laugh was almost enough to push the annoyance of Captain Rogers existence away from his servos.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Darb = someone who is the best or the most excellent  
> Fat head = an idiot   
> Crumb = jerk 
> 
> I have every intention of working the phrase 'Doll dizzy' into an upcoming chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments result in chapters being put up faster. <3


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